Stand Up for Jesus

Mark 3:31-35 ESV

“And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.’”

If we go back and we read verses 20-21, it helps with the context here:

Then he, meaning Jesus, “went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind.’”

I believe Jesus’ mother Mary supported him, but she was human, so it could be that she thought he was out of his mind, too, yet that doesn’t fit with what I understand of her relationship with Jesus. But we do know that Jesus’ brothers (half-brothers) were opposed to him, and that they even mocked him and tried to goad him on one occasion to do something. For they did not believe Jesus. And Jesus told them that the world could not hate them but that the world hated him because he testified that its works were evil (see John 7:1-9). So it makes sense that his brothers would think he was nuts.

And so this is the context of today’s passage of Scripture in Mark 3. His brothers, in particular, were opposed to him, did not believe him, and previously they had mocked him and attempted to goad him. And here they decided that he was out of his mind. And so they (and maybe his mother, too) tried to stop him from speaking to the people because they believed he was crazy (bonkers, gone off the deep end, flipped his lid, etc.)

And that could happen to any one of us, too, if we are truly the Lord’s disciples, and if we are following in his steps, and if we are obeying his commands, and if we are living holy lives (separate, unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed by God to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. And that will most likely happen to us if we are preaching the same messages that Jesus preached and that his NT apostles taught, for what they taught is largely being rejected in America today.

The majority appear to be teaching a cheapened and an altered version of the gospel of our salvation which is giving many people the idea that all they have to do is profess faith in Jesus Christ one time in their lives and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future) and heaven is now guaranteed them when they die, and it can’t be taken away from them, but regardless of how they live. But, according to Jesus and his NT apostles, how we live has everything to do with where we will spend eternity.

For what did Jesus say here? He said, “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother,” i.e. of the family of God and of genuine faith in Jesus Christ. For Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. For many will stand before him on the day of judgment professing him as Lord and claiming they did things in his name, and he will tell them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they would not obey him (Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/ztRM0jzTpcU 

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Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296